NASA Television to Air Space Station Cargo Ship Launch, Docking

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NASA Television will provide live coverage of the launch and docking of a Russian cargo spacecraft delivering almost three tons of food, fuel and supplies to the International Space Station beginning at 4:15 a.m. EST Friday, Dec. 6.

The Russian Progress 74 is scheduled to launch on a Soyuz rocket at 4:34 a.m. (2:34 p.m. Baikonur time) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The spacecraft is expected to dock to the Pirs compartment on the station’s Russian segment at 5:38 a.m. Monday, Dec. 9. NASA TV coverage of rendezvous and docking will begin at 4:45 a.m.

Progress 74 will remain docked at the station for more than seven months, departing in July 2020 for its deorbit into the Earth’s atmosphere. 

NASA and its partners have successfully supported humans living and working in space aboard the station for more than 19 years. The space station is facilitating the growth of a robust commercial market in low-Earth orbit for research, technology development, and crew and cargo transportation, and remains the sole space-based proving ground and stepping stone for achieving the goals of NASA’s Artemis program, which will land the first woman and next man on the Moon in 2024.